Ezerian remained stoic, but he blinked—just once—and in that blink, I could see the regret. “I think, perhaps, I did you and your mother a disservice by staying away. But I didn’t know about you. Perhaps, if I had known, I could have made life easier for you both, even though I couldn’t take you home.”
“How did you find out about me?” I asked.
“About a year ago, a friend of mine came over here on an assignment. He caught sight of you, and—well—he saw the resemblance. He knew that I’d been here at one time. So, he took a photograph. When he returned to our realm, he showed me the picture. Right then I knew that Erin had gotten pregnant. There’s absolutely no mistaking that you’re my daughter. I could feel my blood beating in your heart through the photograph. So I began to search, and a few months back, I found out what happened to your mother. And that she had a daughter whose age matched the time period when I knew her. So I sent Vaurice over and…here we are.”
“Here we are,” I echoed. After a moment, I cleared my throat. “I need to think about all of this for awhile.”
Vaurice reached out and gently patted my shoulder. He sounded almost empathetic when he said, “This must be a shock.”
“It is,” I said, and I didn’t even slap his hand away.
“Take your time,” my father said. “Meanwhile, when should we come to the office to meet your employees?”
I was going to have to go along with this front for now. And—given what I now knew about the Elder Gallara—there were so many questions to answer.
Sighing, I said, “Friday morning. Ten o’clock.” That would give me time to warm the others up to the idea, and to plan out what to do next. I also needed to talk to Seton and Devon about what I’d learned.
“We’ll be there. On time. And make sure your roommate’s there. I want to meet the woman who’s caught my son’s attention.”
Before I could say a word, Ezerian motioned for Vaurice to slide out of the booth. Both were taller than me, by quite a bit, and together we made for an intimidating trio. Right then, I realized that I believed my father. I believed him about Brim Fire and what they were trying to do, and I wanted to help them.
All the way home, I tried to sort through my feelings. In the space of two hours, I’d gone from suspecting Ezerian of trying to disrupt our world, to believing that—as unlikely as it seemed—he was trying to protect it. My father was supposed to be the bad guy. In many ways he was—in no way did I trust that he was a good person. But now, he was fighting on our side.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” I whispered, clutching the wheel.
As I pulled into the driveway and turned off the ignition, I thought about what I was going to tell the others. I didn’t have the faintest idea of where to begin, but before I headed inside, I put in an emergency text to Devon, Seton.
we need to talk immediately. can you both come to the office tomorrow morning? it has to be tomorrow, before friday.
And with that, I headed inside, wondering how to tell Penn everything that had happened.
CHAPTER TWELVE
As I woke, I heard Jangles meowing as she stared out the window. She was sitting on my dresser, nose pressed against the glass, making little chattering noises.
“Do you see a bird?” I asked. “I’m sorry, but you’re not going to go chase it.” I didn’t let the cats outside. There were all sorts of dangers, and they were perfectly content staying in the house. I had plenty of toys, cat trees, and other challenges for them. “You do not need to denude the neighborhood of its avian population.”
I’d left a note for Penn when I got home the night before, asking her to join me at work, if she could possibly make the time. There was far too much to tell her, so I just said that it was urgent. Now, as I dressed and headed into the kitchen, she was there, fully dolled up in one of her retro swing dresses, with makeup perfect.
Breakfast was on the table. She’d made eggs and sausage, with apple muffins. I pulled myself a quad shot latte and joined her at the table.
“It smells wonderful,” I said. The cinnamon from the apple muffins gave the kitchen a spicy tinge, and I cut one in half and smeared butter inside. The muffins were still warm and the butter soaked in as I took a bite of it. “These are so good.”
“So what happened? Your note worried me, but since you were home safe, I decided to wait until your alarm went off to ask.” She speared a sausage link and bit into it.
“I’d like to wait till we’re at work. But you’re not going to believe what I have to tell you.” I paused, then said, “I’m still speechless as to what I found out. By the way, I also need you to come in tomorrow morning. It’s important.”
Penn glanced at me, a quizzical look on her face. “What are you planning?”
“It’s not what I’m planning,” I said. “It’s a matter of who’s coming into the office to visit. I tell you everything now but then I just have to repeat myself at the staff meeting, so if you could wait until then, I’d appreciate it. My mind is still reeling over what happened last night.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll back off until we get to work. But you’ve got me on pins and needles now, and I’m not sure what to think.”
I fed the cats, while she fed Mr. Crumbles. We armed the security system and headed off, taking separate cars so that if she needed to leave during the day she could. The sun was out, and I glanced up at the sky, feeling the warmth of my face. The light seemed so disparate as to what I was feeling inside, that the juxtaposition threw me off guard. But I took a deep breath, focused on the road, and tried not to think until we pulled into the parking lot.
Everybody was at work on time — I had texted them the night before as well, asking them to make certain they made it to work by eight.
Sophia had ordered in a selection of pastries, croissants, and savory breakfast foods. While I was still full from breakfast, I couldn’t resist maple bars. I settled at the breakroom table, waiting for everyone else to assemble. Penn set to my right, and Dante came in and sat to my left. After a few moments, Sophia, Orik, and Carson joined us. I asked Carson to bring up a Meet-Me room and get Lazenti online.
